Overview

Beneficial ownership had been a filing requirement since 2023, and most practices had found a way to get it done. What they did not always have was confidence that it had been done correctly. CIPC accepting a submission was not the same thing as the register being right, and the gap between those two usually sat in the trust or holding company layer. South Africa came off the FATF grey list in October 2025, which made it tempting to treat the whole subject as settled. It was not. Annual returns were still blocked where beneficial ownership was outstanding, millions of entities sat on CIPC’s non-compliance list, SARS began raising administrative penalties on outstanding trust returns in May 2026, and the next FATF review round was scheduled to start later that year.

This session was built for practitioners who did the filing rather than read about it. Bernice worked through the calls that came up on real client files: whether an entity was affected or non-affected, who actually went on the register when a trust held the shares, why the last submission had been rejected, and where the Master and SARS wanted something different to CIPC. Delegates worked through a live tracing exercise on a layered ownership structure, and there were polls and questions running throughout rather than a block of Q&A parked at the end.

Webinar Content

• Where beneficial ownership enforcement actually sat after South Africa came off the FATF grey list, and what the next review round meant for practices
• The three registers that had to agree with each other: CIPC, the Master of the High Court, and SARS
• Which entities had to file, and the dispensations that applied to co-operatives and to companies listed on a local exchange
• Applying the regulated company test, including the 10% securities transfer trigger that quietly turned a private company into an affected company
• What the Companies Act meant by a beneficial owner, how the 5% threshold worked, and why only natural persons could be declared
• Tracing ownership and control up through holding companies and trusts until reaching a person, worked through live with the delegates
• The deadlines practices missed most often, including ten business days on incorporation and on any change, and the annual return anniversary date
• Building the filing pack: mandates, securities and members registers, certified identity documents, and organograms
• CIPC’s optimised pathway, who qualified for it, and what changed in the process
• Five reasons filings were rejected or held up, and how to keep them out of the practice workflow
• The separate trust regime under section 11A of the Trust Property Control Act, where the definition was wider and there was no percentage threshold
• Recording the accountable institutions a trustee used, under section 11(1)(e)
• What SARS expected on the ITR12T, including the beneficial ownership organogram, and the penalty regime that was running on outstanding trust returns
• What non-compliance actually cost a client: compliance notices, administrative penalties, blocked CIPC transactions, deregistration, and director delinquency risk
• Whether the practice itself was an accountable institution under Schedule 1 of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act

Competencies Developed

By the end of the session, delegates were able to:

• Work out whether a client entity was an affected or non-affected company, and file accordingly
• Apply the beneficial owner definition and the 5% threshold to real client ownership structures
• Trace ownership and control through trusts, holding companies, and multiple layers until reaching a natural person
• Put together a complete filing pack, and identify which clients qualified for CIPC’s optimised pathway
• Run beneficial ownership deadlines across a client book by anniversary date rather than by financial year end
• Tell the company regime and the trust regime apart, and apply each one correctly
• Keep the information filed with CIPC, the Master, and SARS consistent with one another
• Advise a client on remediation where filings were outstanding, late, or incorrect
• Assess whether the practice was an accountable institution under the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, and what followed if it was

Presenter

Bernice Houy - Founder & CEO, Fintura

Bernice is a South African accountant, tech entrepreneur, and the founder of Fintura, a fintech platform modernizing daily accounting workflows. With over 12 years of hands-on professional experience , Bernice transitioned from running a Top Women-certified accounting practice to scaling fintech solutions on the global stage. She is the 2025 South African Champion of the Startup World Cup and a global startup mentor , recognized for her deep industry expertise and vocal advocacy for women in finance.

CPD

Attending this webinar and the successful completion of the online assessment will secure a certificate of completion for 1 hours of Tax CPD.

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